Sunday, April 11, 2010

Stalethia the Moondancer

Inspired by this thread on the Mongoose forum, I decided to try to create a Lunar magician. As it happens, I needed to design one for my campaign, so if you are a player, read no further, there be spoilers ahead! I think these rules for Lunar Magic work quite well and are based on the original rules in Gods of Glorantha adapted to be more compatible with new, improved Sorcery. As you might guess, some of the inspiration for the character comes from Ni Chang, the white-haired witch in The Forbidden Kingdom (a very Gloranthan movie).

Stalethia the Moondancer, Agent (Rune Priestess) of HonEel the Dancer

Stalethia is a direct descendent of HonEel herself, although via a cadet branch, and therefore a distant cousin of JarEel the Razoress. She therefore considers herself akin to a demigoddess, although few others do. She has therefore trained herself to the utmost to perform missions on behalf of the Emperor in the hope that Takenegi might notice her and raise her to her appropriate position of honor. She is willing to do anything in the service of the Empire and to honor her ancestor. Fortune has brought her to Prax, where she is working with Imperial intelligence to subvert local authority and bring it under the control of the Count of Prax, her cousin SorEel the Short. Stalethia’s preferred modus operandi is seduction (either sex, she doesn’t care), although if she has to engage in combat she is no slouch, and her Lunar Magic and heroic abilities can make her extremely deadly.

In appearance, she resembles mostly a high-class Lunar courtesan. She generally wears just a loose-fitting silken garment of red and silver silk that gives the promise of revealing more than it conceals. She goes barefoot and wears many silver anklets, bangles, nose-rings and other items of jewelry. She is heavily tattooed, with representations of HonEel’s life and rune tattoos extending even to her face. Her hair is silver, and is usually worn up, piled elaborately on top of her head, held in place by four ruby pins, which double as darts. When she lets her hair down, it initially appears to be waist-length, but can grow magically when she uses her Silver Hair Dance legendary ability. She moves with the grace of a cat, and even when walking appears to be dancing.

She will often use her Lunar Magic to combine her “social” spells and increase their duration, before an evening’s mission. When necessary, she will enhance with Aphrodisiac. If forced into combat, she will use Disarm first, use Lunar Magic to combine combat spells, throw up Absorption either duel an individual using her heroic abilities to the utmost or cast out multiple Disruptions using her Lunar Magic if possible. She tends to avoid getting into potential combat situations on Dark or Dying Moon days.

Lunar Magic: Allows sorcerous-style Manipulations of Common Magic, depending on the phase of the Red Moon. Dark/Dying: No Manipulations. Crescent Moon: One Manipulation. Half Moon: Manipulations as if Lunar Magic skill is Manipulation skill. Full Moon: Manipulations as if Lore (Lunar Theology) skill is Manipulation skill. Thus, Lunar Magician may increase range, duration and targets of spells and combine spells. It has no effect on Magnitude.

Dance of Slaying: By spending an MP, the Hero may use her Dance skill in place of her Evade skill. In opposed contests, the other party must also use their Dance skill, often making even the most skilled combatant appear clumsy.

Silver Hair Dance: The hero can spend an MP to release her impossibly long silver hair and use her Dance skill to use it as either a Net or a Whip. The hair is immune to Disarm Opponent, for obvious reasons, and has 2 AP and 6 HP for the purposes of cutting free via Damage Weapon

1 comment:

Very nice, really :) And thanks to Rufelza that she's got that Lune to protect her from enemy spirits!BTW, I guess Lunar divine magic can still work like in "Gods of Glorantha" under MRQII rules (?)Also, in "Gods of Glorantha" it is said that only a few Lunar citizens are actually initiated into the Red Goddess cult, so I guess the most common Lunar sorcerers use the sorcery rules as they stand. (Like Hazphar Pharates does in "Shadows on the Borderlands").

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